CALIFORNIA PLAYBOOK -- per David Siders and Carla Marinucci -- It’s getting rough out there for California’s most vulnerable Republicans in Congress, who are squarely in the sites of a growing crowd of PACs, grassroots groups and Democratic drives to up the pressure on issues including the tax bill, DACA and Obamacare. Clearly, the GOP tax plan — highly unpopular in California — has put these House members in a big bind, while energizing Democrats who see a strategic platform to effectively push for their defeat and flip the House in next year's midterms.

The latest push: A targeted and well-funded effort by End Citizens United, which yesterday announced it’s dropping $35 million on a national effort to unseat “The Big Money 20” legislators whom they’ve defined as in the pocket of big donors — 4 of them in California, the most from any state. "These are the worst of the worst in Congress," said Tiffany Muller, the group's executive director in a press call with reporters Tuesday. The group’s California targets: Reps. Duncan Hunter, Darrell Issa, Mimi Walters and Dana Rohrabacher. Three California ACLU affiliates Tuesday announced a new online ad campaign starring actress Rosario Dawson, aimed at five vulnerable California Republican House members — Reps. Paul Cook, Devin Nunes, Ed Royce, Issa and Walters — to back a clean Dream Act by the end of 2017.

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And former Sen. Barbara Boxer’s PAC for Change is out with a new spot targeting Rohrabacher; the ad is the second of the PAC’s new “Resist and Replace” campaign targeting House Republicans who voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The first ad, “Darrell-iction,” was launched in August in Issa’s district. http://politi.co/2AYqb4y

NEW JERSEY PLAYBOOK -- per Matt Friedman -- Absent a scandal, it’s rare that a political party gets a real crack at defeating an incumbent member of Congress. And when the opportunity does arise, there’s a good chance it's in his or her first term.

By most measures, freshman Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer in the 5th should be vulnerable next year. But is he really?

He's sitting on $2 million in the bank and has plenty of time to raise more with no signs of a serious primary challenger to force him to spend any of it.

Meanwhile, the GOP primary to take Gottheimer on is getting nasty, as I write here.

One contender, Steve Lonegan, has run unsuccessfully for the House twice before, in two different districts — one that used to cover part of the current district, where he grew up, and one far away in South Jersey, just a few years ago. He’s sought the Republican nomination for governor twice and lost. He ran for U.S. Senate and lost. He unsuccessfully sought to become Bergen County executive. And during that time, he’s made a slew of controversial comments and actions.

John McCann is a lawyer and former Cresskill councilman who also recently declared his candidacy and has watched as Lonegan has wrapped up endorsements from the reddest part of the district, including Mike Doherty, Steve Oroho and Jill and Parker Space. McCann has taken a pro-Trump stance, noting that the president once called Lonegan a “loser” and “nasty guy.” http://politi.co/2AkLRop

NEW YORK PLAYBOOK -- per Jimmy Vielkind and Laura Nahmias -- For the last four years, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, his Democratic bete noir, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and his counterpart across the Hudson, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, danced an awkward dance. Cuomo and Christie quickly established an enduring non-aggression pact, most often manifested through the Port Authority that the governors jointly control. De Blasio and Cuomo quickly began fighting over tax policy, and then everything else.

Come January, the dynamic will shift when Phil Murphy is sworn in as the Garden State’s first Democratic governor in eight years. He’s been aligned with de Blasio on past policy fights, and in some areas may provide a counter-example on Cuomo’s left flank. As our colleagues Dana Rubinstein and Ryan Hutchinswrite this morning, “If Murphy's expected, out-of-the-gate liberalism underscores Cuomo's own vulnerabilities on the progressive front, it's not the only potential pitfall in their formative relationship. There's also the state of the region's infrastructure and the limited pool of money available to address it.”

“They’re gonna kill each other,” said David Wildstein, the admitted mastermind of the George Washington Bridge scandal and a former Christie appointee at the Port Authority. http://politi.co/2zmX4qK

ILLINOIS PLAYBOOK -- per Natasha Korecki -- This week marked a policy and political victory for Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Just more than a year ago, national political figures would hardly be seen with the mayor. This week, mayors from around the nation, and around the world, streamed to his city to help implement an environmental policy in defiance to President Donald Trump. Chicago hosted the North American Climate Summit after Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement. President Barack Obama headlined the summit and in a speech last night, laid out the reasons he battled climate change during his administration.

“Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo joined Emanuel and another 50 mayors from around the world in signing the Chicago Charter, their commitment to the tenets of the Paris Agreement,” ABC/7’s Craig Wall reported. “‘The Chicago Charter that we all signed today are specific plans for how we get to 2025. We can’t afford the leadership out of President Trump that’s been AWOL on this issue,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.”

Obama spoke to a packed ballroom at the downtown Sheraton Grand hotel to close out the second day of the North American Climate Summit hosted by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who earlier in the day issued a “clarion call” for leaders from cities across the globe to tackle global warming. Emanuel, who was Obama’s first chief of staff, was among mayors from 51 cities across 10 nations — and representing more than 60 million residents — who signed the charter, pledging to follow through on actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. Without mentioning Trump by name, Obama pressed on the importance of “keeping our word on the world stage.” http://politi.co/2zVo8uD

FLORIDA PLAYBOOK -- per Marc Caputo -- It’s Wednesday, December 6. The date matters. Numbers matter in state Sen. Jack Latvala’s sex-harassment case. And the math changed significantly yesterday evening when state Sen. Lauren Bookfiled her own complaint alleging Latvala broke the chamber's rules in fighting dirty against accuser Rachel Perrin Rogers. (You read it first on POLITICO Florida.) Book’s complaint gives the state Senate a new tool to keep Latvala in line or punish him without judging Perrin Rogers’ j’accuse.

The next date to pay attention to: December 12, when Hanukkah starts at sundown. By then, under the state Senate’s original hoped-for calendar, a Rules Committee special master hearing Perrin Rogers’ complaint should determine whether there’s probable cause against Latvala. It’s a low, easy standard to meet. Latvala doesn’t sound positive about his chances. But due to the holidays, the Rules Committee might not meet until the first week of 2018. Session starts January 9.That’s five weeks away.

The likelihood of a Latvala departure greatly increases if probable cause is found against him. Will there instantly be the required two-thirds vote to expel him in the state Senate? No. But the number will increase. Meanwhile, Book’s complaint (like any) can be withdrawn from Rules anytime during a full meeting of the chamber and directly placed on the floor. All it takes is two-thirds vote. That’s the same number to expel. If given the choice between resigning due to Book’s complaint or Perrin Rogers', Latvala would probably rather be branded a bully than a groper.

Though she’s a Democrat, Book’s complaint has a broad measure of support in the Republican-led chamber. Resignation calls are rising. Latvala, who became a millionaire thanks to politics, can count. He sounds discouraged on Facebook for a reason. http://politi.co/2Asj1mn

MASSACHUSETTS PLAYBOOK -- per Lauren Dezenski -- Last night’s results in the Worcester and Middlesex special election to replace state Sen. Jen Flanagan spelled good news for the MassGOP, who flipped a seat long-held by a Democrat to red with now Senator-elect Dean Tran. It's a historic win — Tran is the first Vietnamese-American ever elected to the Massachusetts legislature.

Washington D.C.-based Republican State Leadership Committee touted the win in an email blast last night. By their count, Tran’s win is the fourth flip of a Democratic state legislative district by a Republican this year.

Despite this seat being held by a Democrat since the ‘70s, this race was seen as a toss-up. Last week, the Zephir campaign took the unprecedented step of airing a cable TV advertisement in the district, as first reported in Playbook. The campaign did not disclose the amount of the ad buy at the time.

What’s this mean? Not a whole lot will change. In the State House, Democrats still hold a super majority in both chambers, and even in the 40-member Senate, one more Republican in the now seven-member conservative crescent won’t exactly alter the chamber’s course. But it’s a much-needed morale boost for MassGOP, which had lost two of three special elections it had identified as winnable this fall. http://politi.co/2AXwcyI